Prologue
276 Words
Long before the whispers of Paradise Island reached the ears of travelers, before the maps marked its shores, the island was already cursed. Hidden within its forests, where sunlight barely touched the ground, an experiment of ambition and madness had taken root.
Han Joo, an alchemist of no small repute, sought to create a being of unparalleled power, a hybrid of human intellect and the raw strength of the wild. Using blood rituals forbidden by both man and heaven, he merged human essence with the feral nature of beast. The result was Cannimaw: a creature that was neither fully human nor fully monster, but both in terrifying harmony.
The experiment, however, failed catastrophically. Cannimaw rebelled against its creator, slaughtering Han Joo’s village in a frenzy of blood and rage. It vanished into the dense of forest of the island, leaving behind only echoes of terror. From that day onward, Paradise Island became a misnomer. Its beaches were beautiful, its trees lush—but underneath, in the shadows, hell waited.
In the present, a new group of travelers would set foot on the island—young, strong, and untested. They thought they sought adventure; they sought discovery. They did not yet understand that the true peril of Paradise Island was not in the beauty, but in the beast waiting to remind them of their mortality. As the moon cast its pale glow across the island, the shadows shifted. Cannimaw stirred, senses sharp, intelligence unmatched, and patience eternal. It had waited centuries for the right prey, and tonight, it smelled their fear.
Hell had always been here.
Hidden behind the veil of paradise.
And now, it was awake.
- Writer
